Imagine growing up in a family with 8 brothers and sisters. Your dad is addicted to drugs, which makes him uncontrollable at times and unsafe to be around. There isn’t much money and definitely not enough to go to school, especially since school is so far away that you’d have to board with someone. No, definitely not enough money for that. The only option is for you to go work in the opium fields. Maybe that way there will be enough money to feed the family. And living in a rural village that believes in animism, maybe that’s the best way to sacrifice and appease the spirits. This is your lot in life, the same as the generations before you.
Praise God for your mom who wants a better life for you so when an evangelist, Steve,* comes to your village, she takes you to meet him and beg him to take you to be his own son. She knows that this way you will get to go all the way through school, learn about God and have a hope and a future. The evangelist accepts and brings you into his home. God has smiled on you.
This is Luke’s* story and Steve* and April,* the local GNI leaders and houseparents, are requesting our prayers for this 11 year old as he lives with them and studies in grade 4.
As city-girl turned country-girl, I, Traci, love to watch the crops grow. We have a field at the edge of our yard that is often planted with wheat. There is such joy to walk through it, waist height, and run my hands through the heads of wheat. On a windy day, the breeze blows through the crop, making the wheat shift and flex like waves on the ocean. At harvest when the grain is ripe, I enjoy rubbing the wheat heads between my hands until the wheat seeds come out and I can pop them in my mouth and chew them. In a farmer’s experience, one can sense God nearby throughout the seasons.
Myanmar has struggled for 70 years with civil war and this unrest has allowed the continued growth of opium, making Myanmar the second-largest opium growing country, after Afghanistan. The above-mentioned article declares, “’There is a direct connection between drugs and conflict in the country, with the drug economy supporting the conflict and in-turn the conflict facilitating the drug economy,’ the UNODC said…The agency noted that economic problems, including a lack of job opportunities and income inequality, also contributed to the resilience of the drug trade amid increasing efforts by traffickers and organised criminals to diversify the market.” Furthermore, this area is also the hub for the global trade in crystal methamphetamine, otherwise knows as ice.
Children walking through opium fields to get to village where they would share the gospel.
So it is that several of the children living with Steve* and April* with our Myanmar ministry Uncountable Grace, have come from areas as described above. Steve has a heart for those living in these areas and combines that with his gift of evangelism. During the kids’ summer break from school, Steve and April took all the children on an evangelism trip, walking three and a half hours at a time, often through field after field of opium. They brought the gift of hope and love as they encouraged the people in a variety of ways. They brought physical gifts, such as cooking oil, salt or noodles, to each house. They cut hair and worshipped together. Some of the children were able to visit family members, reconnect and share their faith.
Please pray for Myanmar and the challenges they face. Pray for the harvest of souls and that there will be other job opportunities, a hope and a future for this country.
